Sunday, February 17, 2013

hope springs eternal...

Remember this aloe from the February Foliage post:

It is a pup from my parents' plant - one of about seven that I got about three years ago. A lot of them have died, mostly from being too close to my neighbor's lawn, and getting too much water in too cold weather. Some of them got squashed when the new block wall got put up too. There are only three left, and they're all sad. The combination of the north side of the house, and the way the drainage worked, meant they spent each winter trying not to die, and didn't grow much over the summer. So, this weekend, I dug them all up, and put them in a temporary container:

I also got rid of all the clay still hanging on their roots

There were actually four - three decent sized ones, of which only one is still green, and a tiny pup, which has some green in the crown still.

Here they are all potted up in well-draining potting mix, with leaves trimmed:

Intensive care for Aloes

I think the bottom two in the picture might be too far gone, but they've looked that bad before and not died. My plan now is to keep them in this container until about late March/early April, when the night are warm again. I'm actually going to move them indoors at night while they're in the container. Then, I'll plant them in one of the pipes, as part of a bit of a redo on the pipe garden. They should like it there - better draining soil, less water, and more sun.

The part of the front garden these came out of will be one of my projects this spring - I want to turn it into a gravel garden. I've been doing a lot of research (These old posts from Allison and Loree have been helpful!) and I think I'm almost ready. The most fun part will be finding plants - but I'm trying really hard to not buy any yet, since we've still got another month or two of winter...

Which makes me wonder how this new plant showed up, first in my car, and then in my garden:

yup, i fell for the big garden center trick...

It's a Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer', and according to sunset it's good for sunset zones 8 through 24, and according to most sources, it's fairly drought tolerant too. Getting it might have had something to do with being at the Getty last weekend, and seeing this specimen:

Getty Sculpture garden, by the tram

It will be a few more weeks before this one gets planted though - I'll keep it in the garage at night until we're out of frost danger.